Erickson’s head executive, Jim Hobart, pitched SC&P partners
— Don Draper, Roger Sterling, Ted Chaough, Peter Campbell, and
Joan Holloway — that they were “rolling out the red carpet” for
them with major accounts, companies SC&P had been struggling
to nab for years.

Next stop, "advertising heaven."AMC/"Mad Men"

But when Hobart went around the
table telling the partners which big accounts they would head, he
left out Joan, and she noticed. After the group celebrated the
news, Joan told Peter she didn’t know if a woman could get the
same accounts as the men at McCann Erickson.

This premonition, unfortunately, turned out to be accurate Sunday
night for Joan in a heartbreaking episode.

We find out very quickly that McCann Erickson is a boys club when
Joan is on the phone with her Avon contact, along with her junior
account man, Dennis. Suddenly, Dennis takes over the call and
basically ruins it with his lack of knowledge of the client (like
asking if he golfs, unaware the client is in a wheelchair).

"You golf?" ... "Um, no."AMC/"Mad Men"

This leads Joan to reach out
for support from Hobart’s second in command, Ferg Donnelly. She
asks for Dennis to be put off her team. Ferg says he’ll handle
it.

Ferg gets back to Joan with a solution, but first tells her the
logic behind why Dennis acted the way he did.

He tells Joan that Dennis acted in a more authoritative role
because he has a wife and three children and “he’s not going to
work for a girl… What is he going to say, ‘she’s my boss?’”

This obviously isn’t Joan’s first time hearing a chauvinistic
remark. We’ve seen her endure it countless times on the show, and
again she lets this one roll off her.

But things get even more uncomfortable for Joan when Ferg tells
her his solution is that he would now work on the account for
her, adding, “I know a good job when I see one.”

Ferg (Paul Johansson) makes his
move.AMC/"Mad
Men"

Ferg then pushes Joan to
set up a trip to Atlanta to speak with the Avon client in person
and apologize for Dennis' remarks. Joan deflects Ferg’s sly
advance of proposing a trip together by saying that the client
will be in town soon. Ferg replies by telling her he’s “not
expecting anything more than a good time” by working with
her.

Joan is completely deflated from the encounter. But to drive home
the point that McCann Erickson has little need of Joan, Ferg
leaves her office with this zing: “We can’t lose those accounts, what else
would you do around here?”

An unwanted note from Ferg.AMC/"Mad Men"

With nowhere to turn (and now
getting candy and love letters from Ferg), Joan goes right to the
top and has a meeting with Hobart. She voices her displeasure
with Ferg and suggests that she takes on the accounts on her own,
suggesting she receive the same “certain amount of status” she
had at SC&P.

But Hobart responds to Joan’s suggestion by saying, “Your status
has changed.”

“I don’t care about your SC&P partnership,” he told her. “I
don’t know if somebody left it to you in their will, but your
little stake doesn’t mean anything here.”

Joan faces off with Hobart (Matt
Bushell).AMC/"Mad
Men"

This leads to a battle of words
with Joan standing up for her rights and letting Hobart know that
she’s happy to take her half million dollars McCann Erickson owes
her and just leave the company. Hobart tells her to figure out a
way to get along with Ferg, or expect a letter from their
lawyer.

“I wonder how many women around here would like to speak to a
lawyer?” Joan fires back. “I believe the equal employment
opportunity commission has one.”

Joan continues that the second she made a complaint the ACLU
would be in her office and in the lobby there would be “Betty
Friedan and half the women who marched down 5th avenue.”

Hobart counters by saying he’ll give her 50-cents on the dollar
to never see her again, essentially offering her half of what
she’s owed to walk away.

Joan says she’s not negotiating, and Hobart tells her to leave
the office.

Though any "Man Men" fan wouldn’t be shocked by this unethical
exchange, recent seasons did show the evolution (albeit, minor)
of women's rights in the workplace. Joan being a partner at
SC&P and Peggy Olson named head copy chief, proved that. But
by being gobbled up by the larger Erickson, it’s evident equality
hasn’t spread throughout Madison Avenue.

Peggy (Elisabeth Moss) fights for her equality by not
going to McCann Erickson until she gets an
office.AMC/"Mad
Men"

Along with Joan’s troubles on
Sunday’s episode, Peggy was still at the empty SC&P offices
because Erickson thought she was coming to the company as a
secretary, not one of the heads of the copy division. She
demanded an office before setting foot there.

As Joan points out to Hobart with her mention of feminist
activist Betty Friedan,
the cry for equal equality for women was becoming louder at the
time.

Friedan lead the Women’s
Strike for Equality in August of 1970. Falling on the 50th
anniversary of the passing of the Nineteenth Amendment, which
gave American women the right to vote, more than 20,000 women
gathering for protests in New York City and throughout the
country to protest the lack of equal equality in the workforce,
political rights for women, and social equality.

A scene from 5th Ave in New York City during the
Women's Strike for Equality march in 1970.National Organization for Women/The Sisterhood by Marcia
Cohen

Though that historic moment had
recently happened, it didn’t help Joan.

The day following her heated meeting with Hobart, Roger Sterling
told Joan to take Hubart’s deal of 50-cents on the dollar.

“Take the money and be done with them,” said Sterling.

Joan finally concedes.AMC/"Mad Men"

Joan was finally beaten. She
took the framed picture of her son and rolodex from her desk and
told Sterling, “Tell him it's a deal.”

She then walked out of the office.

With only two episodes left of the show, we hope Joan will find
redemption before the final curtain falls.